{"id":108637,"date":"2026-04-28T22:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/?p=108637"},"modified":"2026-04-28T22:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:45:25","slug":"cant-stop-wont-stop-baptiste-stuns-sabalenka-to-reach-maiden-wta-1000-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/cant-stop-wont-stop-baptiste-stuns-sabalenka-to-reach-maiden-wta-1000-semi-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Can\u2019t stop, won\u2019t stop \u2013 Baptiste stuns Sabalenka to reach maiden WTA 1000 semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m very confident right now,\u201d Hailey Baptiste declared with a huge grin on her face after she pulled off a stunning 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) victory over world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a two-hour 30-minute epic duel, the American saved six match points, fired 12 aces (and 10 double faults), and broke the Sabalenka serve six times to snap the top seed\u2019s 15-match winning streak and put an end to her title defence campaign at the Caja Magica.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sabalenka entered the contest having won 26 of her 27 matches this season. The three-time Mutua Madrid Open champion hadn\u2019t lost since the Australian Open final last January and was on target to reach a fourth consecutive semi-final in the Spanish capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Baptiste had other ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

With victories over eighth-seeded Jasmine Paolini and 11th<\/sup>-seeded Belinda Bencic already under her belt this fortnight, Baptiste has been thriving in the conditions here in Madrid as she continues to surf the wave of momentum to storm into the first WTA 1000 semi-final of her career.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was beating Sabalenka at her own game, unleashing huge \u2013 and inch-perfect \u2013 serves at crucial moments during the match, and sending explosive groundstrokes from all corners of the court, while also surprising her opponent with the occasional drop shot or slice, or even serve-and-volley approach (did you see that S&V to save one of the match points late in the decider?).<\/span><\/p>\n

Sabalenka started the third set with a 2-0 advantage but couldn\u2019t maintain her lead as the decider proved to be a roller coaster.<\/span><\/p>\n

In game five, Sabalenka clawed her way out of a 0-40 hole, sweeping five points in a row to hold for 3-2. She let out a huge roar that felt like she was summoning her inner tiger and that she was not going down without a fight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baptiste was unfazed and broke Sabalenka two games later for 4-3.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sabalenka, of course, retaliated and drew level.<\/span><\/p>\n

A marathon 10th game saw Baptiste save five match points before she held for 5-5. The 24-year-old from Washington DC wrestled back the momentum and broke for 6-5 but a stubborn Sabalenka struck again to force a tiebreak.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the breaker, Sabalenka led 4-2, 5-3 and held a sixth match point at 6-5.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baptiste shut it all down, taking the next three points to claim the biggest win of her career and book a semi-final showdown with ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I feel incredible. Obviously, super proud of myself. It was a super tight match, 7-6 in the third, I had to fight off some match points, so I’m really happy right now,\u201d Baptiste said on the World Feed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just shows me where my game lies, and I’ve always believed it. And I feel like now I’m starting to put it into action, and the world is seeing it as well. So I’m very confident right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baptiste had survived a gruelling three-set affair with Bencic the previous day, during which the American lost a 16-14 second-set tiebreak and needed seven match points to get the win.<\/p>\n

She used that experience to help calm her nerves when she got her first match point against Sabalenka in the tiebreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely had a lot of nerves, but I had 28 chances yesterday (against Bencic), and I didn’t get it done. So I was like, \u2018I’m just going to go for it today\u2019. And I was able to get it on the first one. I told my team, when I get my match point today, I’m going to win the first one that I get. And I did it,\u201d Baptiste revealed.<\/p>\n

Baptiste is projected to crack the top 25 for the first time when the new rankings are released next week but she still has unfinished business in Madrid, where she\u2019ll try to avenge her sole previous defeat to Andreeva from Wimbledon last year in Thursday\u2019s final four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m very confident right now,\u201d Hailey Baptiste declared with a huge grin on her face after she pulled off a stunning 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) victory over world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. In a two-hour 30-minute epic duel, the American saved six match points, fired 12 aces (and 10 double faults), and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":108638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[843,837],"tags":[1202],"class_list":["post-108637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-tenis-femenino-en","category-noticias-tenis-en","tag-hailey-baptiste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108640,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108637\/revisions\/108640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}